State treasury nearing bankruptcy, says Kerala’s Finance Minister

In a startling revelation, Kerala’s Finance Minister Thomas Isaac has said that the state treasury is facing an acute shortage of currency and there’s not enough cash even for basic requirements. Providing the details, Isaac said that the Kottayam treasury had requested Rs 1.5 crore, but only Rs 50 lakh has been provided to the treasury. He said that the acute currency shortage situation has developed because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not providing enough cash. He added that the ATMs in the state are also running dry due to shortage of cash.

Isaac also accused the central government, saying that the center is controlling RBI and it is providing cash to only those states where elections are being held. He said that the state government has already contacted top RBI officials, but no positive outcome has been achieved thus far. He further stated that the state will have to reduce spending drastically in case the currency problem is not resolved immediately. It may be recalled that last year, Isaac had pointed out that there was only Rs 700 crore with the state treasury, much less than the Rs 1,009 crore claim made by Oomen Chandy of UDF government.